The Manitoba Moose (16-24-1-1) skirmished with the Grand Rapids Griffins (21-15-4-1) on Friday evening at Van Andel Arena. Manitoba was coming off a 3-2 overtime victory against the Rockford IceHogs on February 3.
Grand Rapids appeared to have opened the scoring eight minutes into the contest on the power play, but after a review it was deemed a kicking motion was used and the attempt was ruled no-goal. The Griffins found twine at the 12:28 mark with a goal off the stick of Tim Gettinger. William Wallinder sent the pass ahead to break Gettinger in on an odd-man rush, where he put a quick shot past Thomas Milic. The goal was the lone scoring play of the first period as the Moose ended the first frame down 1-0. Milic finished the stanza with seven stops, while Michael Hutchinson made six of his own.
Grand Rapids pushed ahead 2-0 with a goal from Austin Czarnik halfway through the period. Milic kicked out the initial shot from Elmer Soderblom, Czarnik followed up by potting the rebound past the netminder. Manitoba was granted a pair of power play opportunities and outshot Grand Rapids 8-6 in the middle frame, but trailed 2-0 after 40 minutes of play.
The Griffins added more insurance 40 seconds into the third with a goal from Marco Kasper. The forward twirled in front and tucked the disc home. The Moose got on the board at the 3:26 mark with a tally from Kristian Reichel. Parker Ford attacked into the zone and hit Reichel with a pass, allowing the forward to speed behind the defence and tuck a backhand home. Manitoba struck again 10 seconds later with a goal from Nikita Chibrikov. Hutchinson gave the puck away behind the net and Chibrikov quickly tucked it home. Manitoba tied the contest at the 5:33 mark with a goal from Dawson Barteaux. Kyle Capobianco held off a pair of defenders before sliding the puck across the ice and Barteaux wired a blast past Hutchinson. Neither side was able to find twine the rest of the way despite a multitude of chances. The horn sounded to send the contest into overtime tied 3-3.
Despite a frantic extra period of play, the game required a shootout to decide the winner. The shootout took 10 total rounds and was won with a goal off the quick shot of Gettinger for a 3-2 advantage in the extra shots. Chibrikov and Ville Heinola scored for Manitoba during the shootout. The Moose picked up a point but fell 4-3. Milic took the road loss on 19 saves, while Hutchinson picked up the win and made 24 stops of his own.
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